Assessing Chinas' Presence In Kenya

Africa previously described by the rest of the world as the "Dark Continent", has witnessed a new wave of competition for its resources. This competition has renewed attraction of traditional players and rising powers like China. A new global power game worthy of the world attention could be shaping in Africa. The presence of China i n Africa is creating jitters among the European powers and the United States. The United States especially feels its hegemony threatened. Unfortunately, China's resounding economic entry in Africa has been poorly served by both academic and non-academic literature on the subject, which can be split into two broad categories. On one extreme, there is an exaggerated, alannist and bleak predictions on long term impact of Chinas trade investments in Africa on the West and i n Africa. They tend to analyze China 's trade and investments i n Africa as mercantilist with zero-sum effect i n which Africa is most l i kely to loose and China gains (Hoslo, 2006). There is also a minority group that disagree with the above sentiments and paint China 's trade and investments in Africa as no more than a subset of globalization; that is south- south trade and investment, partial ly underwritten by Western finances and technology in which the north and the south tend to gain. China's entry into Africa has the potential to spur economic and political competition on the continent that would result in an overall welfare gain for African peoples. This study will therefore focus on the trade and investment relations between Kenya and China. It will highlight the kind of trade the two countries are doing and what benefit each is obtaining. In the case of Kenya, it will highlight whether the increased Chinese investments in the country is contributing to its economic growth as opposed to when most of the investments were western owned.